Frazier sees competition as key to being, well, competitive

Posted by Mike Florio on June 15, 2012, 2:09 PM EST

AP

The Vikings have won their fight for a new stadium, and that may be one of the few victories the franchise will experience this year.

But coach Leslie Frazier thinks things could be better than they were during last season’s 3-13 debacle. And he believes that better competition within the roster will make the team more competitive when the time comes to play other teams.

“The fact that we’ve created some competition at some key positions, that alone will make us better,” Frazier told Dan Barreiro of KFAN, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “We haven’t had the kind of competition in the secondary that we have right now. We haven’t had the kind of competition on the offensive line that we have right now. And there’s some other areas we’ve got to improve. Even the wide receiver position we’re better now than we were a year ago.”

And as the team tries to reverse two substandard seasons, Frazier said the key is to identify and get rid of the guys who are getting too used to losing.

“Part of it is creating competition at positions,” Frazier said. “As soon as you see guys getting complacent with winning, you’ve got to get those guys out as fast as possible. . . . It creates that sense of urgency on our football team.”

It’s a smart approach, but the key is to have enough highly talented players. At many positions, the Vikings may have plenty of average-to-good players who can try to get each other to perform better, but the best thing to have is guys who are truly great — regardless of how hard they’re being pushed in practice by the rest of the depth chart.

The difference between players of team A and team B is minor compared to having those players in the right spots at the right time.

Most folks call that coaching.

Without it, having better “talent” sounds good on paper but won’t make a difference in the outcome of the game.

Truly, there are very few superstars who have the ability to take a team on their shoulders and win games despite the coaching. Some folks say Brett Favre was one of those players and he did have a great season in 2009… however, the Vikings had improved from 6-10, to 8-8 to 10-6 in the prior three years without him and with what most people would agree was very poor quarterback play. So was it him or heaven forbid… coaching?

Change coaches after losing the locker room 2/3’s the way through the season and with the same “talent” the Vikings went 6-10 in 2010 and got even worse at 3-13 last year.

So, if the Vikings don’t improve this year with the additional “talent” on the team… it must be the coach… duh…

Bud Grant (yes I’m that old) won with average “talent” year after year after year.

The Vikings had some great players last year (Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin, Jared Allen) but their biggest problem was too many positions where there was no competence (cornerback, safety, offensive line, quarterback, wide receiver). Now they’ve added a likely perennial Pro Bowler at left tackle, their quarterback is a first round pick in his second year who will have a whole offseason under his belt, and they’ve acquired quality depth at safety, cornerback, and wide receiver. That seems like it should translate into a nice step forward this year.

Bud Grant (yes I’m that old) won with average “talent” year after year after year.
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Bud was a great coach, but how many Hall of Famers did he have for much of his career? Fran Tarkenton, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Paul Krause, Ron Yary…plus guys who should be in the Hall of Fame like Jim Marshall and Mick Tingelhoff.

Probably his best coaching job was his last season in 1985 when he took a 3-13 disaster and returned them to 7-9 competence with pretty much the same roster. Two years later they were in the NFC Championship game. (Of course, Carl Gerbschmidt would tell you that we’re doomed to a decade of irrelevance because we won 3 games last year.)

Bud Grant (yes I’m that old) won with average “talent” year after year after year.
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Bud was a great coach, but how many Hall of Famers did he have for much of his career? Fran Tarkenton, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Paul Krause, Ron Yary…plus guys who should be in the Hall of Fame like Jim Marshall and Mick Tingelhoff.

Probably his best coaching job was his last season in 1985 when he took a 3-13 disaster and returned them to 7-9 competence with pretty much the same roster. Two years later they were in the NFC Championship game. (Of course, Carl Gerbschmidt would tell you that we’re doomed to a decade of irrelevance because we won 3 games last year.)
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You’ve made my point… ask yourself whether the hall of fame players were there despite Bud, or because of Bud. I vote because of Bud.

He knew how to put together a team that could win. And winning teams have pro-bowl players and hall of fame players.

It takes an exceptional player to get into the hall of fame if he played his career on a losing team (Barry Sanders), but only an average player if he played on great teams and that team won one or more super bowls (I’ll use Terry Bradshaw as an example… look at his stats and tell me he could have done what Tarkenton did with the talent in Minnesota, besides it will piss off some Pittsburgh fans to boot).

Bud took the same 3-13 team and went 7-9 in 1985… but he retired again and the team that went to the NFC championship game in 1987 and lost to the Redskins was coached by Jerry Burns. Which is a shame, because had Bud been the coach I have no doubt they would have been in the Super Bowl that year and probably in 1989 as well.

What difference does it make? They still have no chance of climbing out of last place. At least they will have another high draft pick in next years draft. That is if they can get the pick in the allotted time and another team picks ahead of them.